Use Whatever Gift You Have: Lessons from the Lap of a Praying Mother

As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. I Peter 4:10 NKJV

Despite being composed of only three letters, the word lap has various meanings.  For some, the word is used to describe what thirsty dogs do when presented with water to drink. Others may think of a lap as the distance required to complete a run or drive around a track. Still others understand lap as being the area of the body between the lower stomach and thighs that is formed when a person is sitting. This article focuses on the human lap that is created when a person is sitting. It is difficult for a person to form a lap or to hold anything in the lap area when standing.

All people can form a lap to hold things in or on when sitting. This includes parents, teachers, friends, children, pet owners, and so many others.  In some cultures, mothers’ laps are shared within communities for comfort and collective nursing of infants.

The specific lap of one extraordinary, stay-at-home mother comes to mind – it is the lap of Mother Betty Mewborn. You may be wondering – why is her lap the focus of this article?  First, our goal is to emphasize the importance of a godly human lap.  Second, we aim to encourage you to place situations, people, nations, and communities in your own lap. Third, we exhort you to do as the Scriptures have indicated – use whatever gifts you have been given for the good of others and to the glory of God.

Even an infant understands the security of being in someone’s lap. Very young infants are usually not able to verbally say to someone, “Please put me in your lap.”  But it is clear that fussy, agitated, or scared infants seem to understand that to be in the lap of a parent or familiar adult is to be in a place of safety. The human lap is a place where one can be engulfed with nurturing comfort, hugs, protection, and encouragement.

You may not have thought about it before – but the human lap is the place where hurts can vanish and where tears are wiped away. The lap is the place where solutions can be found for problems. It is a place where wrongs are made right. Listening ears are in the lap. Peace can be discovered in the lap. Transformation can take place in the lap.  Purpose can be fulfilled through the lap.

The significance of the human lap can be seen in the Old Testament book of Ruth. Naomi became a nurse for Obed, the baby of Boaz and Ruth. After Obed was born, the Bible says:

Then Naomi took the child and laid him on her lap and became his nurse.  Ruth 4:16 ESV

So-  Naomi’s lap was a place of nursing and nurturing for baby Obed. Because of her age, it is possible that Naomi may have nursed him without actually feeding him.  It is clear though that she placed Obed on her lap, became his nurse, and had significant responsibilities relative to his care. The Bible says that Obed later became the grandfather of King David and an ancestor of Jesus Christ.

Another lap – but one that produced an opposite outcome- was the lap of Delilah where Samson slept. Judges 16:19 AMPC says that after Sampson revealed the secret of his strength to her:

She made Samson sleep upon her knees, and she called a man and caused him to shave off the seven braids of his head. Then she began to torment [Samson], and his strength went from him.

What Samson thought to be a place of trust, comfort, and security proved to be disastrous and deadly for him.  Delilah is a reminder that not every human lap is suitable for a nap, for rest, or for sharing secrets. What may seem to be a lap of safety, comfort, or trust might very well be no more than a deadly trap.

After 91 years on earth, Mother Betty Mewborn went to be with the Lord not long ago. She was a mother, grandmother, great grandmother and spiritual mother to many.  Although she did not initially seem to think that there was anything special about her lap – she was divinely chosen to hold and nurse many in her lap by praying for them often.  This included believers and unbelievers, students, teachers, school staff, homeless men and women, whole families, clergy leaders and ministers, celebrities, the wealthy and the poor, government officials, backsliders, prison inmates and so many more. Can you imagine all these individuals resting in one lap?

Mother Mewborn’s lap was always filled to the full but there was always room for more. When once told that she was God’s stay-at-home mother, she gave a surprising smile and replied, “I am?” Her words could also be interpreted as “Really, Lord – you are using me for this special assignment?”  Starting at age 89, she willingly accepted and always kept her lap at capacity until she was called home to glory. Weekly and sometimes on a daily basis, individuals were placed in her lap. Sometimes specific names of individuals were given to other and at other times, no specific names were given to her at all. Many people rested in her lap and were the focus of her prayers – and most were unaware of it and most did not know her. One of the amazing things about her was that she did not ever tell who was actually in her lap. No one was ousted from the opportunity to be in her lap. Those placed in her lap were prayed for and over by her repeatedly from sunrise to sunset each day as she sat in a chair in her home.  Some names and situations were written on individual slips of paper and the slips of paper were kept in her Bible next to her chair.  The slips of paper were regularly moved from her Bible to her lap to be saturated with her prayers. In praying for the people and situations in her lap, everyday English language often transformed into her heavenly language.  After she was satisfied with the prayers she offered for the situations on her lap, she would remove the slips of paper from her lap, place them back into her Bible and put the Bible back on her shelf until the next prayer session.

There was no kicking, crowding, squabbling, or pushing on her lap so there was no need for her to shake anyone out of her lap.  Only eternity will tell the number of individuals placed on her lap whose situations were impacted by her prayers. One school that she often used to place on her lap for prayer for had over 900 students not including school staff members and parents/family members of the students.  Most human laps can only physically accommodate one or two small individuals at the most. The lap of Mother Betty Mewborn, however, was no ordinary lap.  It was an extraordinary one – created and ordained by God Himself.

In teaching the disciples, Jesus often used nature or simple examples for demonstration of spiritual truths. He often used items or concepts from their everyday lives in his teaching that the disciples could easily relate to. So, it can also be with the lap of Mother Betty Mewborn. Her lap was a place of prayer. It was a place of war.  It was a place of healing and rest. It was a place where she expected the presence of God to meet her on behalf of those in her lap.  Although she never earned a Master’s degree from any college or university, she was awarded one by the Master Himself.

Highlighting the lap of Mother Betty Mewborn does not minimize the importance of the laps of other mothers, grandmothers, god mothers, or spiritual mothers that have been assigned to our lives.  Her lap is simply being used here as one example of how a human lap can make impact on the lives of others.  Mother Mewborn could have rejected the call to place individuals and situations into her lap for prayer.  She could have said, “No, I can not do it because I am too old” or “No, I can not do it because I can not walk” or “No, I can do it because I do not feel like sitting here praying for people that I do not know.”  There could have been countless reasons that she could have said, “No.” However, her availability gave her the desire and ability to offer back to God what she had graciously received from Him.  It may seem insignificant or ridiculous in the eyes of some people – but God was glorified for what took place in her lap.

Beloved reader, what are you doing with the gifts that God has given to you? If a human lap can be used to bring glory to God, surely you have something that you can use to bring glory to Him also.